Microwave synthesis of β-Cu₂V₂O₇ nanorods: structural, electrochemical supercapacitance, and photocatalytic properties

Nanostructured metal vanadates have recently harvested enormous consideration among the researchers due to their remarkable performances in catalysis, electronic devices, energy storage, and conversion. In the present work, we have formulated a facile and template-free method to synthesize β-Cu₂V₂O₇ nanorods and analyzed their characteristics by using various spectroscopy techniques. Copper and vanadium are the earth abundant, relevantly economical, and possess several oxidation states, which can render a broad range of redox reactions favorable for the electrochemical performance. The catalytic efficiency of the synthesized nanomaterial was assessed by the photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) as a model cationic dye under the visible light irradiation. At the irradiation time of 60 min, the catalyst showed the degradation efficiency of 81.85%, k_app (min^{− 1}) of 0.0193 min⁻¹ with the first-order kinetic model reaction. The electrochemical measurements were performed using a three-electrode configuration in 1M NaOH solution. The measured specific capacitance of Cu₂V₂O₇ modified electrode was 269 F/g at 1 A/g with good stability and retention capacity of 89% after 4000 cycles that paved the way to consider β-Cu₂V₂O₇ as prospective material for energy-storage applications.